essay on beautiful mind is better than beautiful face

Beautiful Mind is Better than Beautiful Face | Article | Class 10 |Class 12 |

A Beautiful Mind is Better Than a Beautiful Face

(By: Ritu Adlakha)

As Gautam Buddha said, “Rule your mind, or it will rule you.” It means that we have two choices either to rule our mind or get ruled by it. A beautiful face may help you to look attractive whereas a beautiful mind will help you to conquer the world for it is the most powerful weapon.

After innumerable researches, it has been concluded that external ‘Beauty’ is just a kind of rubber-necking but a real beauty is defined as the spiritual beauty of the person. We should not consider a person beautiful by his/her physical traits like complexion of skin, body stature and shape etc. rather we should admire person’s inner beauty which consists of kindness, gracefulness, compassion, humanity and much more. According to psychology, a person with a beautiful mind always has a bright side of everything no matter what the situation is which help him to evolve tranquility, prosperity, better health and contentment.

The biggest example of beautiful mind is better than a beautiful face is ‘The Mother Teresa’ , a humanitarian . She was from Ottoman Empire but came to Calcutta, India. She was never admired for her beauty but she was considered as a symbol of love, care, passion and selfless charity. Her only goal was to serve the nation without asking for anything in return. There is long list of such people that excelled in their lives with modest appearance and lifestyle.

A beautiful mind will always take you to the right way. A beautiful face may provide us temporary relief and some short terms benefits like a little ease in interviews, a favour from our boss but a beautiful soul will help you achieve long-term and ever-lasting fame and contentment. With the natural process of ageing, our outer beauty will get dwindle whereas inner beauty of us will last forever.

Cover Story

Beauty is in the mind of the beholder.

Face Perception
Physical Appearance
Sex Differences
Social Psychology

essay on beautiful mind is better than beautiful face

Many factors can play into personal attractiveness — the way you dress, the way you act, the way you carry yourself, even things that are hard or impossible to change, like social status and wealth, race, and body size and shape. But the first thing we notice when we meet someone is their face. There are faces that launch a thousand ships, and faces that only a mother could love, and we are supremely attuned to tell the difference. The brain, among its many other functions, is a beauty detector.

The brain is such a good beauty detector, in fact, that it can judge the appeal of a face before you’re aware you’ve even seen one. When participants in a recent study were presented with attractive and unattractive faces for only 13 milliseconds, they were able to judge the faces’ attractiveness accurately (that is, in accordance with experimenters’ ratings), even though they were not consciously aware of the stimuli and felt like they were just guessing (Olson & Marshuetz, 2005).

There is no doubt that beauty (which here means both male and female attractiveness) is to some extent in the eye of the beholder, but across individuals and across cultures there is nevertheless considerable agreement about what makes a pretty or handsome face, and the evidence strongly counters the conventional wisdom that attractiveness preferences are mainly acquired through life experience. For one thing, the beauty bias is already present in infancy. Six-month-olds prefer to look at the same relatively attractive faces that adults do (Rubenstein, Kalakanis, & Langlois, 1999).

Truth in Beauty

The question is, is beauty really only skin deep, or does an attractive face actually reflect underlying good qualities? In a few ways, the stereotype that “beautiful is good” does hold. Evolutionary psychology holds that faces really are windows onto certain fundamental and important characteristics indicative of a person’s quality as a romantic partner and as a mate — qualities of health and genes, and even character.

Our faces are sculpted by our hormones. These sex-typical facial features of adult men and women reflect the ratio of testosterone to estrogen or estrogen to testosterone, respectively, acting on the individual during development. We are programmed to be drawn to strong indicators of maleness (for women) and femaleness (for men) partly because they reflect an individual’s health (Fink & Penton-Voak, 2002). The reason hormones equate to health is somewhat counterintuitive. High levels of sex hormones during puberty actually suppress the immune system, raising vulnerability to disease and infection. It sounds like a bad thing. But when a person with a particularly “male” or “female” face makes it to adulthood with all his or her health intact, it means that the person has withstood the potentially debilitating influence of those high hormones. In other words it signifies a more robust constitution.

‘Your Symmetry Lights Up the Room’

No two faces are alike, and no two halves of a face are alike. Countless small variables make faces somewhat asymmetrical – a slightly wider jaw on one side, one eye a fraction of an inch lower than the other, a cheekbone that sticks out just a wee bit more, a dimple on one cheek, etc. Some asymmetries (called directional asymmetries) are common across the population – for example, the left side of most people’s faces is slightly larger than the right. But many asymmetries, called fluctuating asymmetries, arise when one’s unfolding genetic program is perturbed during development, for instance by parasites or other environmental challenges. The slings and arrows of life’s fortunes can literally knock our faces off of kilter, just like a punch to the nose. A symmetrical face, like a particularly masculine or feminine one, is a sign of having stood up better to life’s figurative schoolyard beatings.

Numerous studies have found that when men and women are asked to compare versions of faces that are more versus less symmetrical, the symmetrical ones garner significantly higher ratings of attractiveness, dominance, sexiness, and health, and are perceived to be more desirable as potential mates (Rhodes, Proffitt, Grady, & Sumich, 1998; Shackelford & Larsen, 1997). So as with masculine/feminine features, the appeal of symmetry makes perfect sense to evolutionary psychologists. In a beautiful face, we are really seeing the artistry of good genes. People prefer symmetrical faces even when they can’t actually perceive the symmetry – that is, when only face halves are presented. It may be that symmetry covaries with other desirable characteristics that reflect the same genetic endowment and overall health (Penton-Voak et al., 2001).

It may not be all that surprising that we’d rather mate with a symmetrical Greek god or goddess than with someone who stepped out of a Picasso painting. Less obvious is that a pretty or handsome face is also generally one that is, well, average . When presented with individual faces and a composite of those individual faces, participants will judge the composite as more attractive than the individual, more distinctive faces. And the more faces that contribute to the composite, the more attractive it becomes (Langlois & Roggman, 1990). The most attractive faces appear to be those whose features are closest to the average in the population—that is, more prototypical.

Averageness, like symmetry, reflects a favorable genetic endowment. Those with average features are less likely to be carrying harmful mutations. Additionally, averageness reflects greater heterozygosity — having both a dominant and a recessive allele for given traits, rather than two dominant or two recessive alleles (an advantage that symmetry also reflects). Heterozygosity confers relatively greater resistance to pathogens, in many cases, and thus, along with all the other indicators of resilience, we may be programmed to seek it out through its subtle but telltale signs.

However, it has also been argued that there may be some much simpler cognitive reasons for the preference for averages. Besides faces, people show a preference for average-looking dogs, average-looking birds, and average-looking watches (Halberstadt & Rhodes, 2000). Prototypes are more familiar-looking than less typical examples of a given class of objects, be it the face of a potential mate or the face of a timepiece, and they are easier to process. Easy on the eyes = easy on the brain.

Men and women both show the above preferences when it comes to faces, but in general men’s preferences tend to be more pronounced (Rhodes et al., 1998). Males may place greater importance on physical beauty when it comes to mate choice, while females also attend to characteristics like power and status. But a number of factors contribute to how much — and when — male face characteristics matter to women.

One factor is a woman’s own attractiveness: Preference for masculine and symmetrical features has been shown to be higher for women who regard themselves as more attractive (Little, Burt, Penton-Voak, & Perrett, 2001). Another is time of the month: The degree of women’s preferences for different attractive qualities fluctuates strikingly across the ovulatory cycle.

A group of University of Mexico psychologists have studied women’s shifting preferences for symmetrical men. They have found that this preference (which women can not only see, but even smell in tee-shirts slept in by symmetrical men) increases dramatically around the time of ovulation, when a woman is most fertile and the chance of conception is highest (Gangestad, Thornhill, & Garver-Apgar, 2005). So does a woman’s preference for more masculine-looking men. But this preference wanes during other times of the month. Again, evolutionary psychology provides a ready explanation.

Humans, like many other species, are socially monogamous but not necessarily sexually monogamous. When sex might result in getting pregnant, it’s health and fertility that are particularly desirable in a mate. But good genes in the sense of physical health is not the same as good genes in the sense of character, and what makes a good sperm donor may not make the best long-term, nurturing, helpful life partner. The flip side of high testosterone is an increased tendency toward aggression and antisocial behavior, a tendency to compete rather than help. Thus a male with less testosterone, indicated by less masculine features, may invest more in caring for offspring (whether or not he’s the biological father) and so may be better to have around for the long term.

A Thousand Ships

The reason-unseating effect of a beautiful face partly involves the amygdala. Activation of the amygdala, which detects the value of social stimuli, has been associated with greater discounting of all kinds of future rewards, and sure enough, this brain area shows much stronger activation to attractive faces than to more ho-hum ones. (It is actually a U-shaped relationship; the amygdala is also highly activated by unattractive faces; Winston, O’Doherty, Kilner, Perrett, & Dolan, 2007.)

In both men and women, attractive faces cause greater activation in several other brain areas involved in processing of rewards. These include the nucleus accumbens, which also activates in response to rewarding stimuli like money; the medial prefrontal cortex; and the anterior cingulate cortex, which may be involved in shaping future behavior from learning reward outcomes. In men (but not in women), the orbitofrontal cortex, an area that evaluates the reward value of current behaviors, also activates in response to attractive female faces (Cloutier, Heatherton, Whalen, & Kelley, 2008).

Beautify Yourself

Beauty is unfair. Not everyone can be born with great genes. Not everyone can be born symmetrical. Not everyone can be born enticingly, well, average. But obviously there are many factors contributing to attractiveness that are potentially under our control.

Getting enough beauty sleep is something everyone can do to up their beauty quotient. A group of Swedish and Dutch researchers conducted an experiment in which observers rated the attractiveness (as well as health) of participants who were photographed both after a period of sleep deprivation and after a good night’s sleep (Axelsson, 2010). Not surprisingly, individuals who were sleep deprived were rated significantly less attractive than those who were rested. They were also rated less healthy.

And then there are the emotions we project through our faces. Not surprising, positive emotions increase attractiveness. We are drawn to those who smile, for example. As when they wore makeup, women who smiled at men on entering a bar were more likely to be approached and were judged more favorably (Gueguen, 2008a). Even a smile perceived only in the periphery of one’s vision will be seen as more attractive than a face with a neutral expression (Bohrn, Carbon, & Hutzler, 2010). And attractive faces that smile produce even more activity in the orbitofrontal cortex than do attractive faces wearing neutral expressions (O’Doherty et al., 2003).

So here’s the timeless message of psychological science: Be beautiful—or, as beautiful as you can. Smile and sleep and do whatever else you can do to make your face a reward. Among its other social benefits, attractiveness actually invites people to learn what you are made of, in other respects than just genetic fitness. According to a new study at the University of British Columbia (Lorenzo, Biesanz, & Human, 2010), attractive people are actually judged more accurately—at least, closer to a subject’s own self-assessments—than are the less attractive, because it draws others to go beyond the initial impression. “People do judge a book by its cover,” the researchers write, “but a beautiful cover prompts a closer reading.”

Axelsson, J., Sundelin, T., Ingre, M., Van Someren, E.J.W., Olsson, A., & Lekander, M. (2010). Beauty sleep:

Experimental study on the perceived health and attractiveness of sleep deprived people [online version].

British Medical Journal , 341. doi: 10.1136/bmj.c6614

Bohrn, I., Carbon, C.-C., & Hutzler, F. (2010). Mona Lisa’s smile—Perception or deception? Psychological

Science, 21, 378–380.

Cloutier, J., Heatherton, T.F., Whalen, P.J., & Kelley, W.M. (2008). Are attractive people rewarding? Sex

differences in the neural substrates of facial attractiveness.

Fink, B., & Penton-Voak, I. (2002). Evolutionary psychology of facial attractiveness. Current Directions in

Psychological Science, 11, 154–158.

Gangestad, S.W., Thornhill, R., & Garver-Apgar (2005). Adaptations to ovulation: Implications for sexual and

social behavior. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 14, 312–316.

Gueguen, N. (2008a). The effect of a woman’s smile on men’s courtship behavior. Social Behavior and

Personality, 36, 1233–1236.

Gueguen, N. (2008b). The effects of women’s cosmetics on men’s approach: An evaluation in a bar. North

American Journal of Psychology, 10, 221–228.

Halberstadt, J., & Rhodes, G. (2000). The attractiveness of nonface averages: Implications for an evolutionary

explanation of the attractiveness of average faces. Psychological Science, 11, 285–289.

Haselton, M.G. & Gildersleeve, K. (in press). Can men detect ovulation? Current Directions in Psychological

Langlois, J.H., & Roggman, L.A. (1990). Attractive faces are only average. Psychological Science, 1, 115–121.

Little, A.C., Burt, D.M., Penton-Voak, I.S., & Perrett, D.I. (2001). Self-perceived attractiveness influences human

female preferences for sexual dimorphism and symmetry in male faces. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London B: Biological Sciences, 268, 39–44.

Lorenzo, G.L., Biesanz, J.C., & Human, L.J. (2010). What is beautiful is good and more accurately understood:

Physical attractiveness and accuracy in first impressions of personality. Psychological Science, 21,

O’Doherty, J., Winston, J., Critchley, H., Perrett, D., Burt, D.M. (2003). Beauty in a smile: The role of medial

orbitofrontal cortex in facial attractiveness. Neuropsychologia, 41, 147–155.

Olson, I.R., & Marshuetz, C. (2005). Facial attractiveness is appraised in a glance. Emotion, 5, 498–502.

Osborn, D.R. (2006). Beauty is as beauty does? Makeup and posture effects on physical attractiveness

judgments. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 26, 31–51.

Penton-Voak, I.S., Jones, B.C., Little, A.C., Baker, S., Tiddeman, B., Burt, D.M., & Perrett, D.I. (2001).

Symmetry, sexual dimorphism in facial proportions and male facial attractiveness. Proceedings of the

Royal Society: Biological Sciences, 268, 1617–1623.

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Rubenstein, A.J., Kalakanis, L., & Langlois, J.H. (1999). Infant preferences for attractive faces: A cognitive

explanation. Developmental Psychology, 35, 848–855.

Shackelford, T. K., & Larsen, R. J. (1997). Facial asymmetry as an indicator of psychological, emotional,and

physiological distress. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 72, 456–466.

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Society of London B, 271 (Suppl.), S177–S179.

Winston, J.S., O’Doherty, J., Kilner, J.M., Perrett, D.I., & Dolan, R.J. (2007). Brain systems for assessing facial

attractiveness. Neuropsychologia, 45, 195–206.

In the middle, you were saying…

“A group of University of Mexico psychologists have studied women’s shifting preferences for symmetrical men.”

But it should have been University of ‘New’ Mexico.

This is interesting, but it is my opinion that it is not very well researched. The standard of beauty has changed throughout the years and is different in different cultures. Also telling people to “be as beautiful as you can be.” I have finally come to terms with my special beauty and people can see it as I exude confidence. Very biased article and just plain wrong.

Symmetrical people means good genes and that’s equal to beauty (thanks to evolution). That’s beyond cultural preferences. And, as the article itself says: “Beauty is unfair. Not everyone can be born with great genes. Not everyone can be born symmetrical. Not everyone can be born enticingly, well, average. But obviously there are many factors contributing to attractiveness that are potentially under our control”. Your confidence is the factor under you control, has nothing to with how symmetrical you are and has nothing to do with the article’s point (which you’re not getting and seems like you’re bashing the article just because you’re not considered pretty).

“But many asymmetries, called fluctuating asymmetries, arise when one’s unfolding genetic program is perturbed during development, for instance by parasites or other environmental challenges. The slings and arrows of life’s fortunes can literally knock our faces off of kilter, just like a punch to the nose. A symmetrical face, like a particularly masculine or feminine one, is a sign of having stood up better to life’s figurative schoolyard beatings.” What research supports this claim?

my experience of beauty is to be judged more harshly. the expectation that I am perfection in all ways not merely physical appearance, and this has led to much angst esp in relationships. I may be beautiful, but I fart in bed. plus occasionally, plain people both men and women have hated me on sight. the weirdest, is when a manager can’t make eye contact. people project their inadequacies. don’t get me wrong it is fun to have free everything, drinks, jewellry etc. You are all beautiful, own it.

This is fascinating stuff. The relationship between beauty and physical measurement ratios have remained more or less constant through the years and across cultures. Here’s a fun ongoing (NSFW) study that looks at these factors, including the relationships between front, back, and face views. ( http://www.femalebeautystudy.com/ )

Any research here on male baldingness and attractiveness? I’ve read some research using photoshopping to remove hair from people that have full hair and I wonder how computer alterations affects the results. Sometimes it seems that those that look best bald are those that aren’t going bald. I’d like to know if there is truth to that.

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Chemistry Between People: A Sum of Their Connections

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In a nod to Valentine’s Day, researchers including APS Fellows Lisa Diamond, Eli Finkel, Nickola Overall, and Harry Reis share discoveries, challenges, and new directions in the study of love, desire, dating, and commitment.

No Evidence That Women’s Preference for Masculine Faces Is Linked With Hormones

Data from almost 600 participants show that women’s perceptions of male attractiveness do not vary according to their hormone levels, in contrast with some previous research. The study findings are published in Psychological Science, a

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Beauty Perception and Your Brain

Apr 6, 2021

How the brain responds to beauty

Beauty is elusive, and philosophers have tried for centuries to understand it. Now scientists are trying their hand as well. And while science cannot yet tell us what beauty is, Scientific American looks at how researchers can perhaps tell us where the response to beauty is — or isn’t located in the brain.

How your brain decides what is beautiful

In his TEDMED Talk, cognitive neuroscientist Anjan Chatterjee’s research in neuroaesthetics is unraveling the intricate concept of human beauty. Dr. Chatterjee draws on tools of neuroscience, evolutionary biology, and art to explain what makes someone aesthetically beautiful and why we’re drawn to beautiful people.

Neuroscience study shows memory can improve with training

Neuroaesthetics is an emerging discipline in the field of empirical aesthetics that uses neuroscience to understand how we experience beauty in different areas (art, dance, music, etc) at a neurological level. Medium explores this controversial field that continues to evolve, push boundaries, and blur the line between art and science.

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Unfolding Concepts.

A Inner Beauty is better than a Fair Complexion

Keywords:- Beauty, Beautiful, Fair Complexion, External Beauty, Beautiful Mind , Inner Beauty

Author: Ashi Dubey

As the time passes your physical beauty becomes faded. You have lots of wrinkles on your face as you become older but internal beauty, your personality, your behaviour, your attitude, your knowledge as well as your confidence is eternal, it does not fade with time.

INTRODUCTION

Someone really well said this thought that “Beauty” is not in the face but it is the light in the heart. In our common society, most people believe that a person who has a fair complexion should be considered as beautiful. This is the most common mentality, especially for girls. Most people believe that a girl who doesn’t have a fair complexion is not very beautiful and no boy is ready to marry a girl who is not fair enough.

There is much difference between looking beautiful and feeling beautiful. Fair complexion is about visual and superficial beauty. Complexion preferences vary from region to region like in South India people are naturally tanned due to the excessive-high temperature but they are happy with their complexion. The term beauty really refers to the ‘inner beauty and the inner beauty is based on your personality traits such as attitude and behaviour.

IS EXTERNAL BEAUTY MOST IMPORTANT?

But the people who believe these kinds of thoughts are right, are actually not beautiful at all, not internally as well as externally. The external beauty that most people consider the foremost priority is the beauty for a moment because it is superficial, it doesn’t attract you for a longer time.

Suppose a person has a very fair complexion just like the white colour. But she or he is so rude, so misbehaved and abuses or is not very social in communicating with you. If this person is beautiful, are you attracted to him or her?

The answer is not at all but why she/he has a fair complexion; then why you don’t attract him or her, why she or he is not beautiful? They are not beautiful because external beauty is happiness for a moment. It is a temporary beauty, the permanent beauty and the actual beauty is your behaviour, your manner, your personality, your self-confidence as well as your knowledge. If a person has all these things he or she will be the most beautiful person in the world.

MISS WORLD – PRIYANKA CHOPRA

Our Miss World Priyanka Chopra is not very fair as most of the Miss World is but instead of this, she won the title of Miss World. So after she won she asked the judges why they chose her for this big title. They answered so gracefully that they didn’t see the external beauty of a person. They only saw her internal beauty, knowledge, confidence and her personality which attracted them.

So it is not really important to be beautiful from the outside to become successful but it is important to be beautiful internally for your success.

But this time also we see on the matrimonial sites demanding fair brides and we also see advertisements promoting their products to become fair. I don’t why a person sells such a kind of product. A person is beautiful enough the way he or she is. We aren’t ready to accept this thing. Our real progress will really occur when we change our racist mentality. When we stop discriminating against people in the education, jobs or any other sector on the basis of their complexion.

How can we achieve the goal of getting rid of this Racist Mentality?

By spreading more and more education among the common public we can achieve this goal. Because education is the only key by which we can improve our mentality. Through this, we can change our perspective toward these things and be able to make the right decision about what is really wrong and right.

By creating awareness about this beautiful thought among people by giving examples of many successful people who are not really fair but they are very successful like Dr APJ Abdul Kalam, Priyanka Chopra and many more. To make them understand that fairness does not matter at all in your way to success it only needs your courage and your determination towards your goal.

By raising our voice against these fairness cream advertisements, or any source that is promoting any kind of racist thinking. Because racial discrimination is a crime and there are many laws made against this. You don’t have the right to discriminate or judge someone on the basis of their skin colour or their complexion.

By believing in your inner beauty you can achieve this goal. Because if we do not believe in ourselves, nothing will make us beautiful.

Beauty isn’t having a pretty face but is having a beautiful mind, a pretty heart and most importantly a beautiful soul. But still, there are many people who don’t understand this simple moral value and run behind a fair complexion. Everybody wants a fair person whether in a job or in advertisements. In India especially in the northern, eastern and western parts people are really obsessed with their complexion. We are beautiful the way we are because God has made us and everything in this universe made by God is beautiful as well as precious.

Some people who don’t believe themselves beautiful and lack self-confidence are totally destroying themselves by agreeing with other people’s views. Most of them use various harmful products for changing their complex under the pressure of society. Some of them apply injections on their face which are really painful and harmful to their body.

At the end of this article I want to say only this; believe in yourself that you do everything in your life nothing is impossible. With your knowledge, your passion, and your confidence you can cross every hurdle on the way to your success. Always consider yourself to be the best person in the world. Do not compare yourself with other people because everyone has their own unique qualities or capabilities. If you do so it will break you very deeply and keeps you away from becoming successful. Be positive in your speech as well as in your thoughts. If you have a beautiful mind everyone loves and respects you.

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Mind Yourself

A Beautiful Mind: A Psychological Review

Ron howard's incredibly successful film handles schizophrenia with a gentle touch..

A Beautiful Mind is a 2001 American biographical drama film that chronicles the life of John Nash, a brilliant mathematician who struggles with schizophrenia. The film won four Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director for Ron Howard, Best Adapted Screenplay for Akiva Goldsman, and Best Supporting Actress for Jennifer Connelly.

John Nash, the brilliant mathematician at the heart of the movies was marked by exceptional intelligence from a young age. However, this remarkable intellect coexisted with signs of social awkwardness and emotional detachment.

During his school days a teacher said to him, "You were born with two helpings of brain but only a half a one of heart," this very aptly summarized Nash's complex nature, foreshadowing the lifelong struggle he would face in balancing his intellectual gifts with his mental health issues.

The Path to Brilliance and the Descent into Schizophrenia

Nash's journey from brilliant student to Nobel Prize-winning mathematician was punctuated by the onset of schizophrenia. While his academic pursuits flourished at Princeton University, his personal life became increasingly chaotic.

He neglected personal hygiene, struggled to maintain relationships, and exhibited an intense focus on his mathematical work. His apathy towards people, colleagues, and his diminished emotional expressions were early indicators of his deteriorating mental health.

He also suffered hallucinations and delusions and along with diminished emotional expression these are three of the five characteristics required for a diagnosis of schizophrenia. The other two being disorganized speech and catatonic behavior, things he also displayed occasionally in the film.

The Cold War Crucible: A Potential Trigger for Schizophrenia

The film suggests that two elements may have triggered Nash's schizophrenia. These were him attending university and the background of the Cold War.

Things start to go badly for Nash’s mental health when he starts his studies and thanks to his mathematical skills he’s soon ‘recruited’ by the Department of Defence to break Russian codes.

Hallucinations and Delusions: Navigating a Distorted Reality

Nash's schizophrenia manifested in the form of vivid hallucinations and elaborate delusions. He has a nonexistent roommate named Charles who he bickers with but also confides in too. There’s also Charles’ niece Marcee who plays an interesting role in that she asks him tough questions about his life and doesn’t really take any guff from him.

Finally, there’s William Parcher, a character he believes to be a military intelligence officer, and his superior when he is recruited to help the US in its codebreaking operations against Russia.

These recurring figures represented different aspects of Nash's internal conflict, reflecting his fears, insecurities, and desires.

His primary delusion centers on the aforementioned belief that he was a secret agent for the Department of Defense, entrusted with deciphering coded messages in newspapers and magazines to prevent a Soviet attack.

This delusion provided Nash with a sense of purpose and importance, compensating for his feelings of isolation and alienation. It also put in him great mental strife as he imagines he’s hunted and attacked by foes.

A Journey of Resilience and Triumph

Amidst the challenges of schizophrenia, Nash found love and support in his wife, Alicia. Her unwavering devotion and understanding played a crucial role in helping him manage his illness and pursue his academic career.

This devotion is tested though, particularly in a scene where Nash gets into a fight with Charles. Alicia cowers in the bathroom holding their newborn baby and when Nash enters he begins blabbering that he’s the only one that can see Charles because he’s been injected with a cloating serum where only Nash can see him. Alicia cries ‘there’s nobody here, there’s nobody here’.

Despite the debilitating effects of his condition, Nash managed to achieve extraordinary success, earning a Nobel Prize in Economics for his contributions to game theory.

Introducing Society to Schizophrenia

A Beautiful Mind has been widely praised for its sensitive and nuanced portrayal of schizophrenia. The film avoids sensationalizing the condition, instead focusing on the human cost of mental illness and the challenges faced by those living with schizophrenia and their loved ones. It has raised awareness of the disorder and sparked important conversations about the stigma associated with mental health.

The movie is not merely a story about schizophrenia though; it is a testament to the resilience of the human spirit. It is a reminder that even in the face of seemingly insurmountable challenges, individuals can find strength, love, and purpose.

Nash's story teaches us that with determination and support, even those battling debilitating mental illnesses can achieve remarkable success and contribute meaningfully to society.

The film's enduring impact lies in its ability to humanize mental illness, showing that individuals with schizophrenia are not defined by their condition but by their courage, perseverance, and humanity.

Hi, I’m Paddy. Thanks for reading my article. I’m a counselor, coach and meditation teacher.

If you’d like to contact me regarding a counseling session or about writing, you can contact me here . My different social media channels are here .

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What Scientists Have to Say about Facial Beauty

Margaret Seide, MS, MD, is a board-certified psychiatrist who specializes in the treatment of depression, addiction, and eating disorders.

Rachel Goldman, PhD FTOS, is a licensed psychologist, clinical assistant professor, speaker, wellness expert specializing in eating behaviors, stress management, and health behavior change.

Verywell / Jiaqi Zhou

Where Does Our Idea of Beauty Come From?

How is beauty defined, partner status.

It isn’t necessarily fair, but there is a substantial body of research demonstrating that being perceived as beautiful or handsome offers some advantages. Physical attractiveness has important social consequences.

It may not be surprising that attractive individuals fare better in the world of dating. What you may not know is that beauty is also associated with more plentiful and more strongly bonded platonic relationships.

Beauty also correlates with upward economic mobility, especially for women. In mock interviews, those deemed to be attractive based on certain traits (more on this later) are significantly more likely to be hired for a position. This is true even when they have comparable education and experience to other applicants.

There seems to be an attractiveness stereotype. People perceived as beautiful are viewed as more competent, kinder, and in general as having more socially desirable traits than those considered less attractive.

Good looks even influence our perception of the seriousness of committed crimes and that more attractive people pay lower bail, on average.

Read on to find out more about the latest findings about beauty from a scientific perspective. It appears that our eyes tend to prefer certain facial features from infancy, and there may be some evolutionary reasons why.

It is an understandably common misconception that our ideas of beauty come from cultural influences such as movies and magazines. Most of us believe that we are “taught” what is beautiful based on the images presented to us throughout our life.

If this were true, that would mean that what defines attractiveness would differ based on culture and era. It would also mean that babies should have very little context for beauty, and therefore not know what it is. None of that is true.

How Babies Perceive Beauty

It turns out that we are only partially influenced by culture and experience. Some human facial features seem to be universally and reliably appraised as attractive, and even babies will agree.

How can we measure what infants understand about beauty? We know that children stare at things that are interesting and appealing to them, such as bright contrasting colors.

In one study, infant’s preferences were calculated based on eye-tracking technology. The results indicate that babies between 12 and 24 months old display visual preferences for things such as facial symmetry and features that are typically associated with facial femininity, which may appear more warm and nurturing, or less threatening.

This point about infants is crucial in that babies have not yet been programmed by culture, advertisements, or celebrity images.

It answers the question, how would someone perceive beauty if their brain were scrubbed of all the societal influences? Their visual attraction to certain facial characteristics represents a more pure neurobiological response.

The commonly used phrase ‘beauty is in the eye of the beholder’ implies that visual beauty is this undefinable, mysterious thing. However, what we know to be true is that scientists have boiled down human facial attractiveness to a few key determinants and that there is a fairly tight consensus across time, cultures, and ethnic backgrounds.

The basic technique used to determine this is having study participants review and give their impression of pictures of various faces. There is then an analysis of what attributes were common to the more favorably rated faces.

Researchers can also digitally manipulate features of the images and observe how that influences opinion. For example, making the jaw of a man more square in an image and seeing how that influences response to the face.

Below are some of the characteristics and the evolutionary theory behind why those attributes may be sought after.

While Verywell aims to be inclusive to all genders, sexualities, etc. please note that much of the scientific research conducted on the topic of beauty and attractiveness, is still based on the surveying of cis-gendered, heterosexual men and women.

Symmetry refers to the extent to which one half of an object is the same as the other half. Our faces are not exactly the same on both halves. Symmetry is one of those qualities that consistently rates as desirable across cultures, and even across species when it comes to mate selection.

When images were manipulated in no other way than to make one side of a face more closely resemble the other side of the face, that dramatically increased the likelihood of that person being regarded as more attractive when compared to the unaltered image.

This may be related to the evolutionary drive to reproduce where symmetry represents good health, making them more desirable as potential mates. In men, a symmetrical body correlates to increased sperm count and sperm health. Breast symmetry in women is associated with increased fertility.

The Appearance of Health

Features that give an indication of health and vitality are prized and considered alluring. Skin condition is a particularly useful marker of current health status. This includes things such as skin color, tone, and texture.

Homogeneity of color: Evenness of skin tone can be a signal to our brains that someone is healthy and might be good mate material.
Smooth texture: Minimal blemishes and lines on a face can signify youthfulness and vitality. These qualities are felt to signify overall health. even when someone is shown a patch of skin without a full face.
Redness of cheeks and lips: Redness of cheeks and lips indicates more oxygenated blood, a signal of health and fitness. A pale or sallow complexion may indicate illness or a suboptimal metabolic picture and is perceived as less appealing.

Indicators of Personality

People were rated as more attractive when their features seemed to indicate socially valued traits such as kindness, contentedness, or cheerfulness.

Faces shown smiling are almost always rated as more beautiful than neutral faces.

Although facial expressions are transient indicators of personality, faces shown smiling are almost always rated as more beautiful than neutral faces. Particularly when combined with direct eye contact or when the smile is perceived as directed at the person rating the picture.

Secondary Sexual Characteristics

This refers to the qualities that are associated with how a face becomes more masculinized or feminized following puberty. Typically, masculine features such as a square jaw, Adam's apple, facial hair, and a prominent brow ridge are associated with dominance and handsomeness. The same is true of things such as fuller lips and higher or fuller cheeks in women.

Women with more feminized faces were found to have higher circulating estrogen, on average. Similarly, increased testosterone relates to more typically “manly” features. These outward indications of a person’s greater hormonal levels are valued in potential mates.

What features are women attracted to in their romantic partner? Well, it depends.

Masculine features: Square jaw and thicker brow were seen as more attractive for women who were already romantically partnered, who were around their time of ovulation (when women are most fertile), or in the context of short-term relationship seeking.

Feminine features: During other phases of the menstrual cycle, a more feminized version of a male face is preferred. Instead of dominance, feminine traits are associated with honesty, warmth, and being cooperative. In other words, features that wouldn’t necessarily be associated with fertility but with stable parenting.

It seems we find people more attractive if they are coupled with or being sought after by others, especially if the others in their orbit are also attractive.

Married: Research shows that men labeled as married were more alluring than men labeled as single.
Highly Desired: Women also rate men as more enticing when they are shown as surrounded by other women than when they are shown alone or with other men.
Previous Partner: People also perceive someone as more attractive, in part, if their prior romantic partner had features associated with the standard of beauty.

Other Influencers of Attractiveness

An interesting quality that determines how fetching you will find someone is who they look like. Have you ever noticed some couples look like each other? Or how some people marry someone who looks like their opposite-sex parent? Research explains some of these preferences.

People who look like you: Women seem to have an aversion to opposite-sex faces that look like them. Men have a mixed response. When men were looking at opposite-sex faces that had similar facial features to them, there was an aversion to those images, but only when asked to consider the partner for short-term relationships. However, this is not true regarding longer-term unions. This may be because the part of the brain felt to be responsible for interpreting beauty called the cingulate gyrus, is also related to self-assessment.

People who look like your parents: Other studies have shown that for hair and eye color, the best predictor of a partner’s traits is looking at the color traits of their opposite-sex parent. Individuals also seem to be most drawn to faces that look consistent with the age their parents were when they were born. Furthermore, women who rate their childhood relationship with their father as positive, show stronger attraction to men whose face proportions are similar to their father’s face.

A Word From Verywell

Although this is what some of the latest research on beauty tells us, these studies cannot inform us of how beautiful it is to meaningfully bond with someone who is funny, intelligent, and thoughtful. Not everything can be measured. The loveliest of things are on the inside and unquantifiable.

Little AC, Jones BC, DeBruine LM. Facial attractiveness: Evolutionary based research . Phil Trans R Soc B . 2011;366(1571):1638-1659. doi:10.1098/rstb.2010.0404

Little AC. Facial attractiveness . Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews ( WIREs) Cognitive Science . 2014;5(6):621-634. doi:10.1002/wcs.1316

Griffey JAF, Little AC. Infant’s visual preferences for facial traits associated with adult attractiveness judgments: Data from eye-tracking . Infant Behavior and Development . 2014;37(3):268-275. doi:10.1016/j.infbeh.2014.03.001

Jaeger B, Wagemans FMA, Evans AM, van Beest I. Effects of facial skin smoothness and blemishes on trait impressions . Perception . 2018;47(6):608-625. doi:10.1177/0301006618767258

Martín-Loeches M, Hernández-Tamames JA, Martín A, Urrutia M. Beauty and ugliness in the bodies and faces of others: An fMRI study of person esthetic judgement . Neuroscience . 2014;277:486-497. doi:10.1016/j.neuroscience.2014.07.040

By Margaret Seide, MD Margaret Seide, MS, MD, is a board-certified psychiatrist who specializes in the treatment of depression, addiction, and eating disorders.

Beauty lies in the gleam of your heart. There is much discrepancy between looking pulchritudinous and being pulchritudinous. In the present scenario, people are engrossed in fair-complexion. When we look through matrimonial announcements, it is irksome that the whole world wants to have a fair-complexioned bride or a groom. Purchase of fairness creams also demonstrates that people are monopolized with fair complexion.

To all intents and purposes, kosher beauty is nowhere else but in our minds. The complexion reaches only deep to the skin. Our performances and achievements depend on our ability. Beauty is someone who pleases our mind but the critical fault-finders of society have made it someone who is light-toned, well dressed, and well weighted. Some swarthies even feel ill on their dark complexion. They even miss job opportunities and are off and on, are made fun of.

According to the outlet, a 14 year old adolescent committed suicide on the account of her classmates who pronounced her “UGLY” just because she was dark-toned. This was not the first time when swarthy had to face insult for their colour. Individuals suicide every year because of their dark complexion. You can come across a stereotype in many places that light-toned people are cordial whereas dark-toned people are mild. Some people also believe that light-toned people are quick on the uptake whereas people with dark complexion are mostly buffoons. To prove the statement wrong, there were many people with a dark complexion who changed the history of the world...

We all know about closed-circuit television ( CCTV ) that are used to record images and videos. They are of big help but have you ever wondered who came up with this? A black woman during the 1960s for the first prototype who was Marie Van Brittan Brown.
The time when no black people stepped into the entertainment industry during the time of 1939, an African American woman, Hattie McDaniel won an Oscar for her film " Gone with the wind .”
Shirley Chisholm was the initial African American woman who became a congressional representative in the United States. This bought a big change in society's view of seeing women working as leaders.

Did you ever envision that what if we reverse this belief? What if we treat fair skin like dark skin? It all starts when the children are young. Your relatives come and say " Ohh! See your sister is darker than you. You're so fair, common get tanned! ” You will not be able to say something that time but then you will experience the same pain and insult a swarthy often faces.

As in India, people want to get a lighter shade of their skin and avoid going out in the sun; opposite to it, people in the western countries want to get tanned in the sun, which most Indians naturally are. They even use organic and chemical products to get tanned.

Khuodia Dilop, a Sangalese model is black as the colour " black " itself. She is proud of herself. She says that even if colour matters I feel to be lucky of being black. We all need to reverse our mindsets to become educated like Khuodia.

It is engraved in the heart of Indians that fair colour belongs to good people and is always satisfied with fair skin, but the ones with a dark complexion, think them to be unlucky. If this continues in the future then the hope for technology, and the hope of development will be broken in many hearts. So let's make an effort to say " NO TO COLOURISM " and stop people pointing out the differences in skin colours. COLOURISM is the silent beauty no one is telling about. Let us dare to discuss and get the answer to this " WHY "

Remember that,

“Beauty is not in the face, it lies in the gleam of our heart ”

. . .

Is Good Also Beautiful?

Moral character affects how people see attractiveness..

Posted April 8, 2022 | Reviewed by Tyler Woods

Moral attitudes shape our judgments about facial attractiveness.
Antisocial behavior affects perceived facial attractiveness of younger faces more than older faces.
People who are sensitive to moral disgust and have empathic concern are especially influenced by the anti-social behavior of others.

Co-authored with Dexian He

A depressing but inescapable feature of beauty is that attractive people receive unearned privileges in life. They are imbued with positive personality characteristics, a bias called the “beauty-is-good stereotype” (Dion, Berscheid, & Walster, 1972). To add to the problematic nature of most people’s response to beauty, we found a complementary “anomalous-is-bad” stereotype. People with facial anomalies (e.g., scars, birthmarks, developmental abnormalities) are often regarded as less intelligent, less competent, and less trustworthy, in ways that suggest that they are being subtly dehumanized (Hartung et al., 2019; Jamrozik et al., 2019; Workman et al., 2021).

In a recently published paper , we asked the question: Do these effects of beauty on inferences of goodness go only in one direction, or do judgments of goodness also shape our impression of physical beauty?

We hypothesized that “good-is-beautiful” and “bad-is-ugly” stereotypes also exist: good people are seen as more attractive and bad people as less attractive. We also looked at whether effects of one kind of valuation (moral) on another (aesthetic) were influenced by age and sex . People rated younger and older-looking versions of the same faces along dimensions of attractiveness , confidence , and friendliness. Before making their ratings, however, each face was paired with a vignette that described the person engaged in a prosocial, antisocial, or neutral action.

What Is Good Is Beautiful and What Isn’t, Isn’t

Learning about morally relevant actions ostensibly carried out by the people whose faces raters saw affected their judgments of facial attractiveness. People thought these faces were more attractive, confident, and friendly when they were linked to prosocial actions than to neutral actions. The opposite pattern characterized faces paired with antisocial vignettes.

Evaluations of a person’s goodness bear on evaluations of physical attractiveness, which may be underpinned by a convergence of shared neural and cognitive systems within our reward and emotional systems, such as in the medial orbitofrontal cortex (mOFC; Wang et al., 2015) and amygdala (Workman et al., 2021). Both attractive facial features that signal good health and mate quality and prosocial behaviors may have adaptive value to human survival and reproduction and these values are conflated.

Age- and Sex-Related Differences

Beauty judgments of older faces were less influenced by moral transgressions than faces of younger people. People seem to be more tolerant of transgressions committed by older than younger individuals.

The philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer observed that “white hair always commands reverence.” Older people are often regarded as being warmer and sometimes less competent (due to cognitive decline ), a combination that might mitigate the effects of antisocial information on judgments of their attractiveness.

We did not find sex-related differences. It may be that the moral behavior of potential mates is equally important to both men and women, with both indicating that positive personality traits are an important factor in long-term mates (Little et al., 2008).

The Mediating Role of Psychological Dispositions

We also found that people who are sensitive to moral disgust and more likely to express empathic concern were especially prone to rating faces as less attractive when paired with antisocial scenarios.

In sum, aesthetic evaluations are shaped by the properties of the aesthetic objects themselves (e.g., face age), by contextual demands (e.g., moral context), and by individual differences in the psychological dispositions of evaluators (e.g., empathy). Beliefs about moral goodness and physical beauty influence each other. What is good is also beautiful and what is bad is also ugly.

Dion, K., Berscheid, E., & Walster, E. (1972). What is beautiful is good. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 24 (3), 285–290. https://doi.org/10.1037/h0033731

Hartung, F., Jamrozik, A., Rosen, M. E., Aguirre, G., Sarwer, D. B., & Chatterjee, A. (2019). Behavioural and neural responses to facial disfigurement. Scientific Reports, 9 (1), 8021. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-019-44408-8

Jamrozik, A., Oraa Ali, M., Sarwer, D. B., & Chatterjee, A. (2019). More than skin deep: Judgments of individuals with facial disfigurement. Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts, 13 (1), 117-129. https://doi.org/10.1037/aca0000147

Little, A. C., Burriss, R. P., Jones, B. C., Debruine, L. M., & Caldwell, C. A. (2008). Social influence in human face preference: Men and women are influenced more for long-term than short-term attractiveness decisions. Evolution and Human Behavior, 29 (2), 140-146. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2007.11.007

Wang, T., Mo, L., Mo, C., Tan, L. H., Cant, J. S., Zhong, L., & Cupchik, G. (2014). Is moral beauty different from facial beauty? Evidence from an fMRI study. Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience, 10 (6), 814–823. https://doi.org/10.1093/scan/nsu123

Workman, C. I., Humphries, S., Hartung, F., Aguirre, G. K., Kable, J. W., & Chatterjee, A. (2021). Morality is in the eye of the beholder: The neurocognitive basis of the "anomalous-is-bad" stereotype. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences. 1494(1), 3-17. https://doi.org/10.1111/nyas.14575

Anjan Chatterjee, MD, FAAN, is Professor of Neurology, Psychology, and Architecture at the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine.

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Inner Or Outer Beauty Essay: What Is More Important?

During the history of mankind the image of beautiful person (man and woman) was constantly changing. Even 50 years ago people had other view on what appearance person should have to be considered beautiful. So many poets and writers glorified the human beauty. However, people usually talk about external or outer beauty. But what about internal beauty? We decided to write not just essay on beauty, but to make it inner beauty essay. So, read and enjoy.

Inner beauty of a human or external: what is more important?

Inner beauty of a human or external: what to choose?

We used to think that human beauty hides in the eyes. However, something that one considers beautiful other person may consider ugly. You can look for the beauty inside in the way how a person presents the beauty aura. It is not important how much beautiful a person is, it is important how much naturally he carries the aura of beauty. The beauty is in the kindness that is a part of the aura, in peaceful nature, in a certain confidence and inner calmness. Faces with the absolute accuracy of the features, beautiful appearance can be egoistic, haughty, fussy or arrogant; they often want to show their superiority over others. Such a superficial beauty will not last forever. People grow old and external features fade away.

Time changes us as physically as internally, we do not have the same appearance during our lifetime. At the same time inner beauty will last forever. Superficial beauty can not make deep impression, and those who aim to get beautiful face and perfect body with the help of Botox injections and other wonders of surgery will hardly get wide recognition and respect.

However, most people will prefer to talk to a person who has attractive appearance, because we all are attracted by something beautiful. Later, when you understand that a person is not what you expect, that you take his / hers appearance for the essence, you may be very disappointed. Having looked deeper, you will discover an empty shell instead of beauty. You will understand how much important it is to have beauty inside and how much seldom you can meet people who have inner and external beauty at the same time.

The inner beauty of a person

Internal human beauty is presented naturally and unpretentious. Probably, it may have not ideal look, but it seems to be coming from a man when he / she smiles, from the manner of speech and treat others with kindness and tenderness. You understand how much beautiful this person is, and definitely you will prefer inner beauty to external. A person with beautiful soul shines brighter than beautiful face with emptiness inside. In such a way, inner beauty of a person is much more important than superficial external beauty, and also we can keep it for the whole life.

What about appearance?

Nevertheless, the researches show that people who have attractive appearance get work more often, especially if the interviewer also considers them attractive. The same researches prove that pupils like more teachers with attractive appearance, and think that they are more intelligent and more professional than others. It is well known that children react positively to attractive faces. Is it possible to disagree with that?

It turns out that if we want “political correctness”, we will repeat again and again that beauty is inside us. But! The world is cruel and if you want harsh and “naked” truth, than you should know that modern society often perceives beauty as something external only, as accuracy of features and respectable appearance.

So let’s be honest and realistic

Billions and billions of dollars spent each year on means that should make our appearance better. Much more than money spent on books, theatres and museums, for example. It means that “beauty” of the real world is outside, not inside. Think about it: those who suffer from extreme obesity seem attractive to you? Do you think they have rich spiritual world? Of course, we can not judge without knowing them closer, but one thing is obvious: their appearance pushes you away. Why? Because people, especially women, are very critical about appearance of each other. Besides, people who do not like their body usually have lack of self-respect.

Beauty of physical look does not mean that someone is better than others. The conception of ideal beauty is built on the age-old competition and desire to create visual attractiveness as a means of competition. The reason for this is in biology.

Of course, physical beauty is important, but fortunately it is not the only thing that a person can give to the world. For the most powerful people, who take decisions, physical features are less essential than such trait as charisma, intelligence, confidence and sense of purpose, which are also elements of inner beauty . Perfect skin and face features are not life-determining things for them. But let’s face the truth, each politician, for example, tends to look attractive and is ready to spend large sums of money on the image-makers and stylists, and they also recourse to plastic surgery.

It is difficult to be honest and say “yes”, outer beauty plays great role because it is not available for everyone. Not everyone was blessed by good genetics, but this is life and we all have to play according to its rules. Sure, outer beauty is a great gift, but what is important is how person decides to use the physical features, can he or she become successful using appearance.

There are people who say that “beauty is in the eye of the beholder”. It sounds great. But everyone knows that the beauty issue concerns women more. Women’s self-esteem is completely connected to their appearance and attractiveness. Unfortunately, women judge more strictly the attractiveness than men. This is not fair, but this is life.

So, beauty is a harmonious whole that brings moral and aesthetic pleasure. Inner beauty of a person is visible from the outside and it makes the person look beautiful. The most important thing is the harmony of body and soul, the inner beauty of a person should be combined with external beauty. Learn how to combine them in yourself and you will be really happy man.

The unity of inner and outer beauty of a man

Our notions of the ideal of beauty are embodied in outer beauty. External beauty is not only anthropological perfection of all the body elements, it is not only the health. It is inner spirituality: rich world of the thoughts and feelings, moral dignity, respect for others and self-respect and so on. The higher moral development and the overall level of human spiritual culture is, the brighter rich spiritual world reflects in external features. In simple words, inner beauty is reflected in the appearance.

There is nothing ashamed in the fact that person wants to be beautiful, to look nice. Outer beauty has its inner moral sources. When a person is engaged with something he likes to do, he looks more attractive, it seems that he has inner light that males him beautiful. Favorite work makes a person beautiful, transforms facial features, and makes them thin and expressive.

If inner spiritual wealth forms human beauty, then inactivity and immoral activities destroy the beauty.

Immoral activities disfigure. A person who has the habit to lie, dissemble, rant avoids looking into the eyes of others, it is hard to see a thought inside his eyes, he hides it. Jealousy, selfishness, suspicion, fear that “people will not appreciate me” – all these feelings gradually coarsen facial features, make them sullen, unsociable. Be yourself, cherish your dignity, because this is the source of the real human beauty.

The ideal of human beauty is the moral ideal at the same time. The unity of physical, moral, aesthetic perfection is the harmony that people seek for.

There are so many essays on beauty already written, but I hope in this beauty essay we managed to transfer the main idea that beauty has two sides, external and internal, and these two elements should not exist separately. There always should be unity of inner and outer beauty.

If you like this essay, visit Puressay.com . There you will find many interesting essays on various topics, and also if you face difficulties in essay writing , our supportive team is always there to help you.

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A Beautiful Mind: A Mental Health Portrayal Descriptive Essay

Directed by Ron Howard in the year 2001, A Beautiful Mind is a chef-d’oeuvre film based on the life of Nobel Laureate in Economics, John Nash.

The film brings out the struggles that Nash encounters with his mental health. In the year 1948, Nash enrolls at Princeton University as a graduate student and immediately stands out from the others. Mostly, he keeps to himself, but in some occasions, he goes out with his classmates for drinks (Howard, 2001). Nash makes it his priority to find an original mathematical theorem.

His best friend while at Princeton is Charles Herman who doubles as his roommate. Later on, he works his way up the ladder to become a professor before taking Alicia as his wife in the same institution. With time, Nash becomes schizophrenic and thus as expected becomes disillusioned if not irrational. He retreats from the world, but in the 1970s, he gets back into the academics world and slowly returns to teaching and research. As fate would have it, John incredibly wins the 1994 coveted Nobel Prize in Economics (Howard, 2001).

The role of Nash as played by Russell Crowe, the protagonist in A Beautiful Mind film is to bring out the leading actor’s role in the film. He is the central character in the film and he ends up in conflict due to the struggles that he faces after being diagnosed with a mental disorder.

Nash’s role is to evoke intrigue and excitement coupled with many other emotions to the audience. Right from when he enters Princeton, his social life and determination to come up with a mathematical theorem, his falling in love and marrying Alicia, and finally his being a victim of a mental disorder, the audience is filled with different emotions.

At the beginning of the film, Nash stands out as a character full of ethics in that he lives a moral and virtuous life while in school, but later on after he marries Alicia, he puts his infant son in danger and knocks down Alicia together with the baby.

However, proponents of his ethical behavior would attribute this incidence to his mental disorder, schizophrenia (Howard, 2001). Overall, it is clear that his character is ethical and his shortcomings hinge on the fact that he suffered sudden illness, which he overcomes later.

In real life, the reality of the occurrences surrounding Nash is evident in the contemporary society. A person might be good at what he or she does and s/he might be living to his or her potential, but all over a sudden, s/he suffers from a disorder that pulls him or her behind and forces him/her to become inadequate since s/he has to rely on medication.

In addition, such people become dependants. Such people might even die and a good example is Steve Jobs of Apple Inc. who bowed to cancer. However, with good support from family and friends, one can pull through and go back to living a normal life again, like the case of Nash in the movie.

Against all odds, Alicia sticks with her sick husband even when the circumstances dictate otherwise. Later on, John luckily wins the confidence of the Princeton University where he secures the chance to work in the mathematics sector under the support of his former ally cum competitor, Dr. Hansen.

Howard, R. (Executive Director). (2001). A Beautiful Mind. [DVD]. USA: Universal Pictures.

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1. IvyPanda . "A Beautiful Mind: A Mental Health Portrayal." February 28, 2024. https://ivypanda.com/essays/a-beautiful-mind/.

Bibliography

IvyPanda . "A Beautiful Mind: A Mental Health Portrayal." February 28, 2024. https://ivypanda.com/essays/a-beautiful-mind/.

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Beautiful Mind Better Than A Fair Complexion

Someone said true, “Beauty is not in the face; beauty is a light in the heart.” This saying conveys that the importance of inner beauty than the outer looks. But is it truly followed by the society especially ours? In India people are so obsessed with fair complexion that they rejected the girl for marriage just because of her dark complexion. When we read matrimonial advertisements, it is really very annoying that everyone wants a fair complexioned bride. Indian society seriously follows Ads shown on TV. High sale of all fairness creams is also an indication of people’s obsession of fair complexion.

The society has changed the definition of beauty, nowadays it is only meant as clean fair complexion. Someone is said to be as beautiful if he/she has pure and beautiful soul, who think beautiful, who do good deeds. Beauty exists in the mind. Outer beauty fades away soon as the age increases, beauty is temporary. Internal beauty is eternal. A person is judged by his/her character, nature, thoughts. If you have seen Miss World 2017 finale contest, there were 5 finalists. One of them was Magline Jeruto, Miss Kenya, a dark complexioned girl. If the complexion would be the component of beauty, would she be among the top finalists?

Our skin is just a wrapping paper of our body, which are in different shades. It will become shrinked, wrinkled and scares as we go old. What is there in us means a lot. It defines one’s character. Our behavior in society, our acts of kindness, compassion and gracefulness, all reveal our inner beauty.

Complexion is natural. People spend a lot in buying fairness creams and face whitening products and expensive therapies. The thinking should be change. The thinking often loses the confidence of dark complexioned people. They often suffer from racial discrimination in several areas. Even the most beautiful, fair, flawless person seen as ugly after knowing his/her bitterness in nature. It has to be understand by usthat complexion is not the basis of judging a person. Beauty doesn’t mean good looking. Social, economic, political and humanistic parameters define a person rather than the colour of their skin.

Ironically, it is in total contrast to people in western countries who are naturally very fair and they intentionally sun their body to get their complexion tanned. There is a demand for dark look in west countrie

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1. A Beautiful Mind Movie Review: Seeking Truth by Reason

2. A Beautiful Mind: Review of the Film and the Textbook on Schizophrenia

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5. A Beautiful Mind: Film Review and Analysis

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Home — Essay Samples — Nursing & Health — Schizophrenia — Summary Of A Beautiful Mind

Summary of a Beautiful Mind

Categories: Schizophrenia

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Words: 612 |

Published: Mar 19, 2024

Words: 612 | Page: 1 | 4 min read

Introduction, the early years at princeton, the obsession with originality, the decline of mental health, the subjective experience of schizophrenia, seeking help and acceptance, managing the illness and regaining control, a complex and nuanced portrayal.

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Essay on “A Beautiful Mind” Movie

The 2001 motion picture A Beautiful Mind stars Russell Crowe as the Nobel Prize winning mathematician John Nash, a complicated character who along with his brilliance, was also plagued by a life long struggle with schizophrenia. The film’s narrative plots a path for the audience from times before Nash was aware of his illness through to the point at which he and his wife find a way to manage the condition. In this short essay I intend to explore and examine the ways in which the theme of schizophrenia is treated within A Beautiful Mind, from the symptoms, to the treatment and the minutia of how the illness impacts on the individual and the individual’s family.

The first signs within the narrative that the audience can see John’s illness manifesting is in his increasing inability to communicate his feelings, which takes a toll on his personal relationships and the intimacy that he once enjoyed. The role that his wife takes on during the film can almost be seen as an audience surrogate, with Alicia seeking to help from the outside by seeking treatment and the need for medical definitions of her husband’s problems. From John himself, however, we get to experience a more internal side of the illness, with depictions of hallucinations and delusions along with outward symptoms like awkward facial expressions and slurred, jumbled passages of speech. In showing both the internal and external sides of schizophrenia through the experiences of both Alicia and John, the film brings a pleasing sense of balance to the topic of mental health.

Something else that the film does very effectively is show that schizophrenia, and more broadly any mental illness, is never a single cure type of problem. Though John shows some change in function and a degree of control after initial treatment, the narrative makes it clear to the audience that the battle is far from won, and this is demonstrated by the fact that the character continues to experience hallucinations and follow them as if they were real life: for example, his belief that he was a government employee helping to decode newspaper secrets.

Interestingly, something that is particularly significant about the treatment of mental illness within the film is that John, by the end of the narrative, instead of experiencing a triumphant victory over schizophrenia, has learned to cope with his afflictions in a way that allows him to function as best he can. In choosing not to interact with his hallucinations, John is taking control of his illness whilst at the same time understanding that he can never truly rid himself of the schizophrenia. In treating it like a part of yourself that needs as much care and attention as any other, a balance can be found where you neither let it rule your life nor completely succumb to its heavy power. This suggests a wider point that it is possible for anybody, not just John Nash, to be able to take control of their mental illness and live alongside it without allowing it to completely dominate the essence of their lives.

In conclusion, it would be fair to surmise that A Beautiful Mind is an extremely effective cinematic tool that can be used to demonstrate both the effects and concepts that are related to schizophrenia. The picture manages to capture and portray the essence and impact of an illness that by its very nature is almost intangible, and for that it should be applauded. It can be seen as a great resource for opening up a discussion about schizophrenia and mental illness in general.

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